The Collection
Here I tell of the long haul to pick up the ‘Tri-Beast.’
After finishing work on Saturday, I picked up the bike trailer from U-Haul and then tinkered with things until Robin went to work. Having made sure to be tired by having had a couple of late nights, I popped down to the local hostelry for a few quick beers to help put me to sleep and then went home and straight to bed at around 6 in the early evening.
Robin got back from her part time bar tending job at 1 in the morning, woke me up, and by 1:30am we were on the road for Southern Indiana, Straight down I39. The weather was cloudy and fairly cool. Robin slept on and off until we hit both daylight and Illinois except for the regular fuel stops every 220 miles or so. As the journey progressed we found that fuel prices dropped steadily with the cheapest we saw being in Indianapolis where it was 35 cents less per gallon than we pay at home!
The landscape changes upon entering Illinois. Gone are the smaller farms and rolling hills of Wisconsin to be replaced with huge fields and a flat and boring landscape. Upon entering the State, you first hit a toll booth where you find that the trailer more than doubles the toll for driving on their sub-standard highways! Also of annoyance was the fact that the speed limit for anyone pulling a trailer is 10mph lower than for the same car without! Cheeky bastards!
No such stupid speed limitations in Indiana and no tolls either. The traffic was fairly heavy around Indianapolis but the were no holdups and we reached our destination which was about 50 miles North of Louisville KY at about 11:30am.
The transaction was taken care of and the bike secured to the trailer. We were directed to a most excellent Chinese eatery for some lunch and then returned to the vendor’s dwelling. He loaded his Wife and 2 dogs into his Range Rover and took us out to view the huge old covered bridges for which the area is known.
Farewells exchanged, we hit the road with the clock fast approaching 3pm, heading back the way we came. Trafic was heavier on the way home due to people going home from their weekend jaunts. Those bastards in Illinois charged us more to get out than the had charged us to get in! Minutes after the toll booths , thinking we were safely back in Wisconsin, a problem arose.
Officer Dibble turned on his State Trooper flashing light display and pulled us over for a faulty tail light. He was young and a little wet behind the ears but only gave us a warning. It was when he leaned in to my car to return my licence that he came out with the strangest thing: “Do I smell burnt Marijuana in this car?” We were floored and denied it as best we could between laughing. He then pointed out various items in the car, demanding to know what they were, thinking, we guess, that they were drug paraphenalia! So we showed him our self charging flashlight and the digital dashboard clock that keeps falling off its velcro mounts! He sent us on our way and we left with much haste, just in case he might start enquiring about our slave trading exploits or connections to Hitler! What the dickhead actually smelled was my engines coolant starting to overheat slightly as we sat by the side of the road for over half an hour!
We finally reached home at around 1am, unloaded the bike and got to straight to bed. the whole journey had taken almost exactly 24 hours, just over 21 of which were driving some 1200 miles. Doing the deal, filling the tank, eating and tourism accounted for the other 3.
Was it worth it? You bet! I am now the prowd owner of a 1975 Triumph Trident that doesn’t run and has plenty of rust. Plenty of work lies ahead before the ‘Tri-Beast’ can show the local Hogs what an extra cylinder can do!